Securing Patient Data from Outside Threats
Genesis Physicians Group
Industry: Healthcare
Network Size: 27 users
“Nobody has ever supported me the way Untangle has. It’s been remarkable”
Background
The Genesis Physicians Group is a busy association. It serves 1,700 doctors in the North Texas area, acting as an intermediary between its clients and the insurance companies, and offering a range of other services – including the compilation of patient outcome data, credential management and secure email.
As such, Genesis must maintain a tight, secure network that ensures privacy and confidentiality. Physician email accounts need to be kept free of spam and sensitive patient data needs to be protected from corruption by viruses and exploitation by spyware.
Security and Productivity
Dan Nickason, the IT manager, wanted to add an additional layer of protection to their network. “We started using Untangle to address our security issues and to handle network monitoring,” he says, “and straight away found that productivity went up. We used to have some small problems with staff visiting game sites during office time. That doesn’t happen anymore. The best part is that Untangle’s content control is very flexible: like most filters, it blocks access to sites with drug references, which can sometimes be a problem in a medical environment, but if a site needs unblocking I can do it in an instant.”
It’s not just an issue of employee productivity, either – Untangle helps Dan get his job done more smoothly: “I no longer spend time fixing problems resulting from spyware and viruses. So I’m a lot more efficient, and the network is too.”
Dan particularly likes the simplicity of Untangle. “When I open up my browser, I have my Untangle settings as the default page. I can see everything that’s going on. Everything’s in one place.”
The simple and compact design helps too: “We have this very small server room,” Dan says, “and, if I’m honest, I have to say we are right out of rack space. If I had to have several different solutions, there wouldn’t be room for all the boxes. Untangle is just one box, so aside from the fact that one appliance is always better to work with than two, three or four, it’s really convenient.”
Unparalleled Support
Dan reserves his fullest praise for the Untangle support team. “Nobody can touch them,” he says. “Nobody has ever supported me the way Untangle has. It’s been remarkable. Untangle is pretty simple to use as it stands, but with the great support added it just seems effortless.”
“You know,” Dan goes on, “I love the product so much I even use it at home to keep my kids on track with their schoolwork. MySpace doesn’t live at my place anymore!”
